ABSTRACT
The introduction outlines how “artificial intelligence” or “AI”, in combination with other technologies, poses serious threats to individuals through the subliminal, or unnoticed, manipulation of their minds. These risks are recognised both by UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI and, more specifically, by the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). The AIA plans to prohibit AI systems that deploy subliminal techniques capable of distorting a person’s behaviour and causing serious harm. The introduction brings together the principal legal, technological, and cognitive questions that are raised by the complex natures of both human perception and subliminal AI systems.
